"Sam-vett" som naturens vett. En idéhistorisk undersökning av Sara Lidmans Jernbanesvit
The object of investigation in this essay is the epic novel sequence Jernbanan written by Sara Lidman. More specifically the investigation takes on the idea of a ?sam-vett? as it is formulated in Jernbanan. The ?sam-vett? is an idea about the undivided unity of man, nature and animal, and with a kind of primitive trait. By asking the question what traces the history of ideas are to be found in the ?sam-vett?, the hope is that it will bring some clarity to the notion and what its message might be. In addition to that a thesis is formulated, that the ?sam-vett? can be read as a form of deep ecology. Deep ecology takes on the first rule of ecology, that everything is closely bound together, and extends it to a philosophy. By discussing the notion of the ?sam-vett? in the light of two figures in the history of ideas, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Martin Heidegger, the hope is to unravel its learning. In the end the ?sam-vett? can be described as knowledge of nature that is based on a feeling more than the intellect ? that begins where the language ends.